tick-tock

utility.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include <cstring>
#include <cstdio>
#include <cstdlib>
#include <string>
#include "utils.h"

using namespace std;

namespace utils {
	double initial_time = clock();
	time_t t1=0,t2=0,t3=0;
	double final_time = 0;
	double total_time = 0;

        /*
	the tick & tock functions are used toghether (usually in main() ) to 
	calculate the time used by a specific function. 
	they should be used like this:
	utils::tick();
		f1();
		f2();
		f3();
	utils::tock("name of process/function", result_file_pointer);
        */
        
void tick(){
	initial_time = clock();
	time(&t1);
}

void tock(std::string processName, FILE* resultfp){
	final_time = clock();
	total_time = (double) (final_time - initial_time) / (double) CLOCKS_PER_SEC ;
	time(&t2);
	t3 = t2 - t1;
	if (t3>1000) total_time = t3;
	cout << endl << "[time-report] Time required to " << processName << " is: " << total_time << " seconds"<<endl;
	if(resultfp!=NULL) fprintf(resultfp, "\n[time-report] Time required to compute %s is: %f seconds.\n", processName.c_str(), total_time);
}

} // namespace utils

utility.h

#include <vector>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>

/// namespace to contain the used utilities
namespace utils {
    void tick();
    void tock(std::string processName,FILE* resultfp);
} // namespace utils